2 shot in Ga. store busy with storm customers

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Two women were shot Monday inside a suburban Atlanta supermarket that was busy with customers trying to stock up before a winter storm that's widely predicted to hit the area, police said.

Lawrenceville police spokesman Greg Vaughn told local news outlets the shooting happened at a Kroger and that two people of interest were taken into custody. Vaughn said the shooting came after some sort of fight or argument but didn't have details.

"The scene is a little chaotic," Vaughn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "You can probably imagine with everybody stocking up on bread and milk," he said. Several shoppers told WSB-TV that they hid in freezers while police cleared the store.

Vaughn said the women have been hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries. He said one woman was shot in her leg and the other was shot in her torso.

Kroger officials said in a statement that no store employees were injured in the noon shooting, and the store was "evacuated and will reopen at a later date."

Calls from The Associated Press to the Lawrenceville police spokesman weren't immediately returned.

On Monday, officials were quick to act as the winter weather zeroed in, determined not be the butt of jokes like the Saturday Night Live parody that referred to the "devil's dandruff" and "Yankee's slush." Before a single drop of freezing rain or snow fell, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal had declared a state of emergency for nearly a third of the state, schools canceled classes and workers were told to stay home.